Service request information transfer system and method

ABSTRACT

A service request information transfer system includes: a service request taking/management terminal managed by a service desk, that receives a room service request from a customer, matches the serial number of a customer terminal provided to the customer with the order number and room number of the customer, identifies the staff member closest to the location of the room from which the room service request is received, upon receiving the room service request, and provides order information to a staff terminal the closest staff member is carrying; a customer terminal that is provided to a customer and sends the serial number of the device as a short-range wireless communication signal when the customer makes a call; a cloud service server that receives a room number and the serial number of a customer terminal matching the room number from the service request taking/management terminal and stores the same, finds the room number matching the serial number upon receiving the serial number of the customer terminal, creates a room service message corresponding to the room number and sends the same to the staff terminal of the staff member closest to the room with the room number; and a staff terminal that receives a room number and a room service message from the cloud service server and displays the same so that a corresponding room service staff member acknowledges information about the room service request and provides room service.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a service request information transfersystem and method, and more particularly, to a service requestinformation transfer system and method that provide a customer terminalwhen providing service to a customer in a large store and allow thecustomer to call through the customer terminal so that the call istransferred directly to the staff member closest to where the callinformation is generated.

Moreover, the present invention relates to a service request informationtransfer system and method that allow the staff member closest to wherethe call information is generated to share the call information with thesecond closest staff member if the closest staff member is processing acustomer's request or cannot accept the call because they are busyworking on what they are doing.

In addition, the present invention relates to a service requestinformation transfer system and method that allow a staff member havingan urgent situation to share the urgency of the situation with the staffmember closest to where the urgent situation has happened.

Related Art

A call bell is often used in restaurants, sports arenas, shopping malls,hotels, and other such places to summon a staff member or manager or askfor service.

However, with such a call bell system, it takes a lot of time to handlea call from a customer if the staff or manager is far away from wherethe customer is located, and, if a number of staff members come to acustomer who has made a call, they won't be able to work on other thingsthey need to do. Also, even if a customer's request is in process or iscompleted, other staff members who are not aware of this are highlylikely to process the same request, which makes the conventional callsystem impractical.

Besides, a staff member or manager handling a service issue may get intoan urgent situation, but the absence of an automatic urgency detectionsystem makes staff management difficult.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a service request information transfersystem and method which, when a customer asks for room service, get thestaff member closest to the customer's room to take the customer'srequest quickly and offer room service to them, and, if a certain staffmember is delivering a customer's request or has completed it, updatethe status information to prevent other staff members from processingthe same customer request.

The present invention also provides a service request informationtransfer system and method which, if a staff member is in an urgentsituation, inform other staff members of the urgency of the situation toask for help.

In an aspect, a service request information transfer system is provided.The service request information transfer system may include: a servicerequest taking/management terminal managed by a service desk, thatreceives a room service request from a customer, matches the serialnumber of a customer terminal provided to the customer with the ordernumber and room number of the customer, identifies the staff memberclosest to the location of the room from which the room service requestis received, upon receiving the room service request, and provides orderinformation to a staff terminal the closest staff member is carrying; acustomer terminal that is provided to a customer and sends the serialnumber of the device as a short-range wireless communication signal whenthe customer makes a call; a cloud service server that receives a roomnumber and the serial number of a customer terminal matching the roomnumber from the service request taking/management terminal and storesthe same, finds the room number matching the serial number uponreceiving the serial number of the customer terminal, creates a roomservice message corresponding to the room number and sends the same tothe staff terminal of the staff member closest to the room with the roomnumber; and a staff terminal that receives a room number and a roomservice message from the cloud service server and displays the same sothat a corresponding room service staff member acknowledges informationabout the room service request and provides room service.

In another aspect, a service request information transfer method isprovided, in which a customer terminal, a staff terminal, and a servicerequest taking/management terminal are connected to a cloud serviceserver to send and receive data. The service request informationtransfer method may include: upon receiving a room service request fromthe customer terminal, identifying, by the service requesttaking/management terminal, the staff member closest to the location ofthe room from which the room service request is received; sending a roomservice message, by the service request taking/management terminal, tothe staff terminal of the staff member closest to the location of theroom from which the room service request is received; checking, by theservice request taking/management terminal, whether the staff member hasaccepted the message or not after receiving the same; if the staffmember has rejected the room service message, repeatedly identifyinganother recipient and sending the room service message to the staffterminal of the another recipient; and if the message is accepted,updating the status information of the staff terminal and ending themessage transfer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a service requestinformation transfer system according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 2 through 5 are views for explaining a method for transferringrequest information in a request information transfer system accordingto an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a method for transferring requestinformation in a request information transfer system according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed in details with reference to the accompanying drawings. Thedetailed description to be disclosed herein along with the accompanyingdrawings is provided to describe exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention and is not intended to describe a sole embodiment in which thepresent invention may be implemented.

However, these embodiments are provided to fully convey the scope of theinvention to those skilled in the art, and the present invention isdefined only by the appended claims.

In some cases, well-known structures and devices may be omitted or blockdiagrams illustrating only key functions of the structures and devicesmay be provided, so as not to obscure the concept of the presentinvention. That is, configurations for accessing the internet, types ofshort-range wireless communication signals, and configurations foraccessing the internet via a short-range communication relay orshort-range communication terminal will be omitted.

In the entire specification, when a certain portion “comprises orincludes” a certain component, this indicates that the other componentsare not excluded and may be further included unless specially describedotherwise.

Specific terms used in the embodiments of the present invention areprovided to assist understanding of the present invention, and, unlessdefined otherwise, all terms used herein including technical orscientific terms have the same meaning as those generally understood bythe person with ordinary skill in the art to which the present inventionpertains. Various modifications may be made in the specific terms withinthe range that they do not depart from technical spirits of the presentinvention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed in details with reference to the accompanying drawings. Thedetailed description to be disclosed herein along with the accompanyingdrawings is provided to describe exemplary embodiments of the presentinvention and is not intended to describe a sole embodiment in which thepresent invention may be implemented.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a service requestinformation transfer system according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention. The service request information transfer systemaccording to the present invention will be described with respect to,but not limited to, hotel room service.

The service request information transfer system includes a servicerequest taking/management terminal 100, a customer terminal 200 that isprovided to a customer and sends the serial number of the device as ashort-range wireless communication signal by pressing a button, a cloudservice server 400 that is accessed by the service requesttaking/management terminal 100 and customer terminal 200 via a wirelessinternet communication means, and a staff terminal 300 that is carriedaround by a room service staff member and can access the cloud serviceserver 400 via the internet.

The service request taking/management terminal 100 may be configured byinstalling programs and applications capable of implementing functionsof the present invention on a PC that can access the internet and allowsfor short-range wireless communication.

The service request taking/management terminal 100 is able to accept andmanage room service requests by accepting a room service request from acustomer, creating a room service order number, and inputting roomservice request information, i.e., order information, into the ordernumber. In the present invention, the service request taking/managementterminal 100 stores a room number and order information by matching themwith the order number, stores the serial number of the customer terminal200 by matching it with the order number and the room number, and sendsthe matching information to the cloud service server 400.

As a method of matching the serial number of the customer terminal 200,a service request taker may manually store a customer terminal's numberby matching it with an order number and a room number, and, when theserial number is wirelessly sent by pressing the send button of thecustomer terminal 200, the wirelessly sent serial number is received andautomatically matched. To this end, an applicable capable of receiving awireless signal from the customer terminal and automatically matching itwith the order number and the room number may be installed on thecorresponding service request taking/management terminal 100.

Moreover, the service request taking/management terminal 100 may managethe staff efficiently by receiving information about the currentlocations of staff members in real time by locating them using wirelessrouters installed in the hotel.

To this end, first of all, the service request taking/managementterminal 100 collects MAC addresses, signal strengths, etc., which areWi-Fi AP information of a number of wireless routers installed in thehotel, stores the collected MAC addresses as Wi-Fi AP locationinformation, with identification information including location-specificnumbers inputted to it, and sends this information to the cloud serviceserver 400. Afterwards, if a staff member is located near any Wi-Fi APincluded in the stored Wi-Fi AP location information, the servicerequest taking/management terminal 100 calculates the current locationof the staff member by putting together the strength of the Wi-Fi APnear the staff terminal 300 the staff member is carrying and storing itas a location-specific number. In this case, the service request takermay manually store the MAC addresses, signal strengths, and Wi-Fi APlocation information, which are the Wi-Fi AP information of the wirelessrouters, in the service request taking/management terminal 100, or theinformation may be received from the cloud service server 400 andmanaged through automation.

For example, if a MAC address included in the Wi-Fi AP information isaa:bb:cc:00:11:22, the Wi-Fi AP location information may be set asSection A, Floor 1, which may be matched with a preset location-specificnumber 1-A. Also, if a Wi-Fi MAC address is aa:bb:cc:00:22:00, the Wi-FiAP location information may be set as Elevator A, which may be matchedwith location-specific number E-A. If the staff terminal 300 with serialNo. 24 has the highest measured Wi-Fi AP signal strength atlocation-specific number E-A, the service request taking/managementterminal 100 may find out that the staff member carrying the staffterminal 300 with serial No. 24 is located at Elevator A. If the staffterminal 300 with serial No. 5 has the highest measured Wi-Fi AP signalstrength at location-specific number 1-A, the service requesttaking/management terminal 100 may find out that the staff membercarrying the staff terminal 300 with serial No. 5 is located at SectionA, Floor 1. Based on information about the current locations of thestaff, upon receiving order information from the customer terminal 300,the service request taking/management terminal 100 may automaticallylocate the staff member closet to the room with the room number fromwhich the order information is received and send a room service messageto the staff terminal 300 the staff member is carrying.

While, in the present invention, the service request taking/managementterminal 100 sends a room service message first to the staff terminal300 of the staff member located closest to the room with the room numberfrom which the order information is received, it may re-send theroom-service message to the staff terminal 300 of the second closeststaff member depending on the design if the closest staff member doesnot accept the room service message.

Moreover, if the staff terminal 300 is a smart device capable ofdetecting an abnormal biological signal, danger, etc., the servicerequest taking/management terminal 100 may detect any abnormalbiological signal, danger, etc. from the staff member carrying the staffterminal 300, create an urgent message, and send it to other staffterminals 300.

This process will be described in details when describing the staffterminal 300 later.

The service request taking/management server 100 stores an order numberand a room number as matching information by matching them with theserial number of the customer terminal 200, and stores Wi-Fi APinformation and Wi-Fi AP location information and sends them to thecloud service server 400.

The cloud service server 400 is accessed by the service requesttaking/management terminal 100 via the internet. The cloud serviceserver 400 may provide call information transfer service to a number ofstores, i.e., hotels. That is, when the service requesttaking/management terminal 100 sends the corresponding subscriber numberwhen accessing the cloud service server 400, the cloud service server400 may identify the subscriber (i.e., hotel) and control theinformation transfer service for this hotel.

The cloud service server 400 may send and receive information byconnecting to the customer terminal 200 and the staff terminal 300 overthe wireless internet. Since the customer terminal 200 is a wirelesstransmitter that only sends the serial number, it requires an internetcommunication means to connect to the cloud service server 400. Also,the customer terminal 200 may be set up to pair with an AP forshort-range wireless communication, and the AP may receive a wirelesssignal from the customer terminal 200 and send the serial number to thecloud service server 400 over the internet. If the staff terminal 300 isa mobile phone or smart watch, it may receive data directly from thecloud service server 400, whereas, if the staff terminal 300 is ashort-range wireless communication terminal only equipped with a displayfunction, it may be set up to pair with an AP for short-range wirelesscommunication like the above customer terminal and communicate with thecloud service server 400.

The cloud service server 400 receives a room number and the serialnumber of a customer terminal that matches the room number from theservice request taking/management terminal 100 and stores them asmatching table information. Afterwards, upon receiving the serial numberof the customer terminal 200, the cloud service server 400 finds theroom number matching the serial number, creates a room service messagecorresponding to the matching room number and sends it to the staffterminal 300.

Moreover, the cloud service server 400 receives Wi-Fi AP information ofwireless routers installed in the hotel and Wi-Fi AP locationinformation from the service request taking/management terminal 100,receives information about the current location of each staff member,which is calculated by putting together the strengths of Wi-Fi APs nearthe staff terminal 300 each staff member is carrying, and stores thisinformation as location-specific information, i.e., location matchingtable information. Afterwards, when a room service message is createdfrom the customer terminal 200, the cloud service server 400 sends theroom service message to the staff terminal 300 carried by the staffmember closest to the room with the room number.

The staff terminal 300 receives a room number and a room service messagefrom the cloud service server 400 and displays them so that acorresponding room service staff member acknowledges information aboutthe room service request and provide room service. The staff terminal300 may be a smart watch or mobile terminal a service staff member iscarrying around with them or a PC or table device that displays andmanages the status of all room service.

Furthermore, in the present invention, a separate interface with buttonsfor sending a status message like “message accepted”, “messagerejected”, “service in process”, and “service completed” may beconfigured on a terminal in order to allow a staff member to controlroom service messages. For example, when a staff terminal 300 receives aroom service request, the staff member may click an “accept” or “reject”button. If the staff member has clicked the accept button and isprocessing the room service request or has completed it, the staffmember carrying the staff terminal 300 may click an “in-process” buttonor “completed” button regarding a room service message displayed on thescreen of the terminal. If a staff member receives the room servicemessage but clicks the message reject button because they are not ableto process the request or is busy working on what they are doing, theroom service message may be handed over to other staff members undercontrol of the service request taking/management terminal 100. Once theroom service message is handed over from the staff terminal 300, thecontrol value may be sent to the service request taking/managementterminal 100 through the cloud service server 400. The service requesttaking/management terminal 100 may then update the status information ofthe room service request and send it to every staff terminal 300 throughthe cloud service server 400 to display the status information of everystaff terminal 300.

Every staff member carrying their own staff terminal 300 is able to knowhow the room service request from the corresponding room number is beingprocessed, and if a certain staff member is processing the room servicerequest or has completed it, the other staff members may check on thisand keep working efficiently on what they are doing without processingthe same request.

If the staff terminal 300 is a smart device capable of detecting anabnormal biological signal, danger, etc. depending on the design, it maycreate and send an urgent message to other staff terminals 300. Forexample, if a biological signal from a staff member carrying a staffterminal 300 with serial No. 7 is beyond a certain reference level, anabnormal signal message may be sent to the terminal 300 of that staffmember. If this staff member has not read the message for more than acertain amount of time, an urgent message may be created and sent to thestaff terminal 300 of the staff member closest to the staff terminal 300with serial No. 7 or to the staff terminals 300 of all staff members.Also, when the urgent situation is over, the staff member carrying thestaff terminal 300 with serial No. 7 or any staff member who hasreceived the urgent message may send an “urgent situation over” messagethrough their own staff terminal 300.

The abnormal signal message, urgent message, and urgent situation overmessage may be created from data stored in the service requesttaking/management terminal 100 and sent through the service requesttaking/management terminal 100.

FIGS. 2 through 5 are views for explaining a hotel room service requestinformation transfer method according to an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are views for explaining a method for receivinginformation about the current locations of staff members in real time bylocating them using wireless routers installed in the hotel, accordingto an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

In the present invention, first of all, MAC addresses, signal strengths,etc., which are Wi-Fi AP information of a number of wireless routersinstalled in the hotel, are collected, and the collected MAC addressesare stored as Wi-Fi AP location information, with identificationinformation including location-specific numbers inputted to it.Afterwards, if a staff member is located near any Wi-Fi AP included inthe stored Wi-Fi AP location information, the current location of thestaff member is calculated by putting together the strength of the Wi-FiAP near the staff terminal 300.

Referring to FIG. 2, in the present invention, Wi-Fi addresses arecollected, Wi-Fi AP location information is collected, andidentification information including location-specific numbers isstored, with the location information inputted into it.

Referring to FIG. 3, in the present invention, if a staff member islocated near any Wi-Fi AP included in the Wi-Fi AP location informationstored as illustrated in FIG. 2, the current location, i.e.,location-specific number, of the staff member may be found by puttingtogether the strength of the Wi-Fi AP near the staff terminal 300 of thestaff member.

Once the location-specific numbers of the staff are found, a createdroom service message may be sent to the staff member closest to wherethe message is created, thereby enabling the staff to work efficiently.

Referring to FIG. 4, in the present invention, a separate interface maybe configured on a terminal in order to allow a staff member to controlroom service messages. when a staff terminal 300 receives a room servicerequest, the staff member may click an “accept” or “reject” button. Ifthe staff member has clicked the accept button and is processing theroom service request or has completed it, the staff member carrying thestaff terminal 300 may click an “in-process” button or “completed”button regarding a room service message displayed on the screen of theterminal. If a staff member receives the room service message but clicksthe message reject button because they are not able to process therequest or is busy working on what they are doing, the room servicemessage may be handed over to other staff members under control of theservice request taking/management terminal 100. Once the room servicemessage is handed over from the staff terminal 300, the control valuemay be sent to the service request taking/management terminal 100through the cloud service server 400. The service requesttaking/management terminal 100 may then update the status information ofthe room service request and send it to every staff terminal 300 throughthe cloud service server 400 to display the status information of everystaff terminal 300.

Referring to FIG. 5, in the present invention, if the staff terminal 300is a smart device capable of detecting an abnormal biological signal,danger, etc., it may create and send an urgent message to other staffterminals 300. For example, if a biological signal from a staff membercarrying a staff terminal 300 with serial No. 7 is beyond a certainreference level, an abnormal signal message may be sent to the terminal300 of that staff member. If this staff member has not read the messagefor more than a certain amount of time, an urgent message may be createdand sent to the staff terminal 300 of the staff member closest to thestaff terminal 300 with serial No. 7 or to the staff terminals 300 ofall staff members. Also, when the urgent situation is over, the staffmember carrying the staff terminal 300 with serial No. 7 or any staffmember who has received the urgent message may send an “urgent situationover” message through their own staff terminal 300.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a method for transferring requestinformation in a request information transfer system according to anexemplary embodiment of the present invention.

First of all, when a particular event occurs, like a room servicerequest or an urgent situation, the service request taking/managementterminal 100 finds the location of the staff member closest to where theevent has occurred, by putting together and calculating the strength ofa Wi-Fi AP near the staff terminal 300 of the closest staff member(S10).

In this case, the step S10 may include: collecting MAC addresses andsignal strengths, which are Wi-Fi AP information of a number of wirelessrouters installed in the hotel and storing the collected MAC addressesas Wi-Fi AP information, with identification information includinglocation-specific numbers inputted into it; and, if a staff member islocated near any Wi-Fi AP included in the stored Wi-Fi AP locationinformation, calculating the current location of the staff member byputting together the strength of the Wi-Fi AP near the staff terminalthe staff member is carrying, and storing the same as alocation-specific number. In this way, the staff member closest to thelocation of a room from which a room service request is received may beidentified.

Once the staff member closest to the location of an event is identified,the service request taking/management terminal 100 sends a room servicemessage or urgent message to the staff terminal 300 of the closest staffmember (S20).

Next, the service request taking/management terminal 100 checks whetherthe staff member has accepted the room service message or urgent messageafter receiving it (S30).

If the staff member has accepted the room service message or urgentmessage through the staff terminal 300 (S40), the service requesttaking/management terminal 100 may update the status information of thestaff terminal 300 as, for example, in process, completed, etc., and endthe transfer of the message.

If the staff member has rejected the room service message or urgentmessage (S40), the service request taking/management terminal 100identifies another recipient—that is, the staff member who is secondclosest to the location of the particular event and can receive themessage, other than the staff member who has rejected the message. Inthis case, the status of the second closest staff member may be detectedbased on the status information of the staff terminal 300 (S50).

Once another staff member who can receive the message is detected in theabove step by the service request taking/management terminal 100, theroom service message or urgent message is sent to the staff terminal 300of the another staff member (S60). If this staff member accepts themessage, the service request taking/management terminal 100 updates thestatus information of the corresponding staff terminal 300 and ends thetransfer of the message. If the staff member rejects the message, theflow may return to the step S40 of informing of whether the staff memberaccepts or rejects the message, and repeat the step S50 of detectinganother staff member who can receive the message.

In the present invention, it is obvious that all data sent and receivedbetween the service request taking/management terminal 100 and the staffterminal 300 may be provided via the cloud service server 400.

In the above description, although all components constituting theembodiments of the present invention have been described as beingcombined into a single body or as being combined into and operated as asingle body, the present invention is not necessarily limited by theseembodiments. That is, one or more of all the components may beselectively combined and operated within the scope of the object of thepresent invention. The above-description is merely intended toillustratively describe the technical spirit of the present invention,and various changes and modifications can be made by those skilled inthe art without departing from the essential features of the presentinvention. The scope of the present invention should be defined by theaccompanying claims and all technical spirits falling within theequivalent scope thereof should be interpreted as being included in thescope of the present invention.

One advantage of the present invention is to provide service efficientlyby taking a customer's request quickly and preventing other staffmembers from processing the same customer request.

Another advantage of the present invention is that, if a certain staffmember has an urgent situation, other staff members who are close tothat staff member are informed of the urgency of the situation to handlethis situation quickly.

1-14. (canceled)
 15. A computer-implemented method, comprising:detecting occurrence of a predetermined event; searching for, by aservice request management terminal, a location of a staff terminal of astaff member closest to where the detected event occurs; sending, by theservice request management terminal, a message to the staff terminal ofthe staff member closest to where the detected event occurs; checking,by the service request management terminal, whether the staff memberclosest to where the detected event occurs has accepted or rejected themessage using the staff terminal; and if the staff member closest towhere the detected event occurs has rejected the message using the staffterminal, sending, by the service request management terminal, themessage to another staff member's staff terminal.
 16. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the searching for, bythe service request management terminal, the location of the staffterminal of the staff member closest to where the detected event occurscomprises calculating strength of a Wi-Fi access point of the staffterminal to find the location of the staff terminal of the staff memberclosest to where the detected event occurs.
 17. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 15, further comprising, if the staff closest to wherethe detected event occurs has accepted the message using the staffterminal, updating information regarding a status of the staff terminal.18. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the anotherstaff member's staff terminal to which the service request managementterminal sends the message is a staff terminal which is located secondclosest to where the detected event.
 19. A service request managementterminal configured to: detect occurrence of a predetermined event;search for a location of a staff terminal of a staff member closest towhere the detected event occurs; send a message to the staff terminal ofthe staff member closest to where the detected event occurs; checkwhether the staff member closest to where the detected event occurs hasaccepted or rejected the message using the staff terminal; and if thestaff member closest to where the detected event occurs has rejected themessage using the staff terminal, send the message to another staffmember's staff terminal.
 20. The service request management terminal ofclaim 19, wherein the service request management terminal is configuredto calculate strength of a Wi-Fi access point of the staff terminal tofind the location of the staff terminal of the staff member closest towhere the detected event occurs.
 21. The service request managementterminal of claim 19, wherein the service request management terminal isconfigured to, if the staff closest to where the detected event occurshas accepted the message using the staff terminal, update informationregarding a status of the staff terminal.
 22. The service requestmanagement terminal of claim 19, wherein the another staff member'sstaff terminal to which the service request management terminal sendsthe message is a staff terminal which is located second closest to wherethe detected event.